Thelonious Monk Documentary -- 4/10

[COFREZY]

Strange,Excentric,Genius,Ahead­ of Time,Too much energy to contain you decide

[pencert]

In heaven all possible jazz ensembles are realized every night, in an intimate little club, where all the jazz musicians who ever lived hang out after two or three in the morning.

[Drkprence]

6:00 is "Just a Gigolo"

[davidgrech1]

real genius

[MrSnaketoe]

what a lovely family

[peev2]

What's the song at 6:00 ???

[keyzcity]

There is a CD of Mingus playing piano, its really good.

[BigJavs]

perhaps bi-polar but obviously somewhat autistic and 100 percent genius.

[oluham]

Bud Powell, Earl Tatum, Charlie Mingus, Thrlonious Monk = Piano Insanity!

[MCalixte89]

@oluham Earl Tatum was a basketball player, and Charles Mingus was a bassist. Maybe you meant to say ART TATUM!

[closetome]

Thank you. I want to play Jazz!

[chillhood]

Rahsaan Roland Kirk @4:02 !

[chillhood]

watched this doc for the 1st time 2 yrs ago. it's great. Love Monk

[MarquisEstelle]

Almost like high-functioning autism with obsessive or tick disorders. Wonder where the musical knowledge came from. Seems like everything is thrown into dissonance. He couldn't have been thinking about structure, just seems like he's feeling this. The "gigilo" thing is just way dissonant and bawdy, doesn't work for me.

[vespacurry]

The word on the street was they were all a little envious of him..... and that cut him up.

[MrHoracedebussyjones]

@vespacurry

this is very true.imagine inventing a language,and dizzy,miles and bird get credit

for it,and dizzy even dresses like you;they get money,fame,press and you stay broke?



[cavaleer]

@MrHoracedebussyjones That's a good point but he didn't do it by himself. All those cats were at Minton's. Monk was as much a pioneer and creator as the others and in his way even more inimitable. To me though, Monk's obliqueness, I'll call it, was perhaps a precondition to create his style of genius. I'm not sure if it's tragic but it was what it was. To be able to hear what he heard and create it, play it, requires an extreme state, almost a place unto itself.

[angelettidrummer]

His symptoms would suggest to me that he was bi-polar,not schizophrenia. His wild ups followed by depression is typical.possiblly slightly autistic and I'm sure the drugs did'nt help matters. The guy was brilliant and wrote and played some truly great and unique music.

[brunospinks]

Thelonious is such a cat - he even turns around 15 times before he sits down..

[rayjr62]

@brunospinks Yes. T.S. talks about how his mom saw the symptoms years earlier.

[chexg]

I don't know why but his rendition of "just a gigolo" makes me feel sad.

[cottageorgan]

His take on "Just a Gigolo" is perfection. His playing was so lyrical, so full off air but totally on the edge, as if at any moment he may fall off and crash land, but never did. Monk was a true individual, an outsider and a great artist. Beautiful man. Thanks.

[MrFlagon]

he didnt belong on earth he died early now hes in space with Coltrane making cosmic groove waves

[MrFigueroa007]

monk was probably the coolest jazz piano player ever.

[harrycarrysghost]

He's hearing melodies and rhythms in his head while he's dancing. He's not crazy. He was working it out on stage. Ever see Cocker sing?

[aarfeld]

@harrycarrysghost: Crazy isn't a medical term, but suffering from bi-polar illness is a diagnosis, and that is what it's determined he had. He spent his last years in a near catatonic state staring out a window at the New York skyline--hardly normal. Still in denial?

Say, you aren't a Scientologist . . . are you?

[inayabhaimerej]

@aarfeld A lot of people make a big thing out of his last days not playing piano or staring out windows... He's almost 70 when he died, retired after revolutionizing music. I don't find him strange at all.

[8ballinthepocket]

that's the great saxophonist rahsaan roland kirk at 3:57

[damnitjimimonlyadr]

Manic depression's a frustrating mess.

[tomitstube]

savant.

[ConnorShawMusic]

He is brilliant!!Thanks for sharing all these documentaries!!

one love

connor

[AngeloAnnieMate]

Fourth Part [FOUR of spades]..."Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental illness characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality, most commonly manifesting as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions or disorganized thinking in the context of significant social dysfunction". So far I can't read anything negative on this wikipedia meaning. Thelonious was a very complex guy, I love that about him, and it completely shows in his music.

[aaronamccoy]

poor rahsaan he looks so alone there, just trying to laugh with his friend thelonious but lost.. i once heard him say 'being blind is like having a blindfold around your eyes 24/7 with someone pointing a .357 at your dome" or something like that, he was bad ass in his own right..

[hollerfersound]

dude, people who have schizophrenia suffer a lot. talk to anybody who has it, the illness didn't bring him any comfort or joy

[neworleansusan]

@hollerfersound

He also looks autistic - his behavior of 'spinning' is characteristic of an autistic person - they spin to calm themselves down. His diagnosis was schizophrenia back in the 60's - but it was a cocktail of disorders really. Not just one. God bless him for hanging in there so long.